The piecemeal operation continues between Hamas and Israel, where the situation remained confusing and caused much anxiety right up to the last minute, on Saturday, November 25. The second group of hostages, due to be released by Hamas at 4 pm, eventually arrived late at night at the three hospitals in central Israel, where relatives had been waiting since afternoon.

This time, 13 Israelis – eight minors and four women, almost all from the Be'eri kibbutz – and four Thais were released by the Islamist organization, in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners, women and young people under the age of 19, held in Ofer prison in Ramallah (West Bank). While the previous day's process had been lengthy but went smoothly, this time the exchange almost collapsed.

The problems started in the morning, when Hamas accused the Israelis of not respecting their commitments to the deal. The November 22 agreement between Israel and the Islamist organization provided not only for hostage-for-prisoner exchanges, but also for a four-day pause in the fighting and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

But, according to Hamas officials, the trucks carrying aid – including food, medicine, water, and fuel – were not arriving at the expected rate. Hamas also criticized the profile of the Palestinian women about to be released. According to them, the Israelis were planning to release people who had only been locked up for a few months, whereas the Islamist organization was calling for prisoners who were serving longer sentences.

As a result, the extremely complex mechanics of the agreement seemed to go haywire for several hours. After claiming that the hostage transfer was beginning, Hamas declared that it had been delayed. For their part, the Israeli authorities suspended all of their official communiqués, without explanation. It took the mediation of all the players involved in the signing of the November 22 agreement to resolve this crisis, which considerably heightened tension in Israel, where the war cabinet finally demanded that the hostages be transferred out of Gaza before midnight.

The United States – Joe Biden reportedly called the Emir of Qatar – Egypt and, of course, Qatar, the indispensable link in this chain of talks, undoubtedly intervened to convince Hamas to keep its word. Extraordinarily, in the middle of the day, a private Qatari plane landed in Israel from Cyprus. According to Ehud Ya'ari, head of the Arab world on Israel's Channel 12, one of the jet's occupants was none other than Qatar's Foreign Affairs Minister Mohamed Al Khulaifi.

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